


small lines

by Faye_Reynolds



Series: tumblr au prompts [26]
Category: The Pacific (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop & Tattoo Parlor, M/M, flower shop owner!sledge, tattoo parlor owner!snafu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 14:06:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13389387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faye_Reynolds/pseuds/Faye_Reynolds
Summary: frommy tumblr post





	small lines

**Author's Note:**

> from [my tumblr post](http://thecompanyofheroes.co.vu/post/162742623063/sledgefu-flower-shoptattoo-parlorau-eugene)

eugene sledge had an affinity for beautiful things. he liked the beauty of a good book unfolding before him. he liked basking in the sunshine and the way it would reflect off the water. he found beauty in little pleasures like a candy that took him back to his childhood, an unexpected letter from his parents, or a dog coming up to him for affection. above all things, he saw beauty in flowers. each one so simple and fragile and unique all on it’s own. he treated each one with care and affection and he loved the people that would come into his shop. there was something about flowers that was so incredible to him. they held the ability to encapsulate entire emotions in a single gesture. and on a particular day, an extraordinarily ordinary day, someone bursts into his store, out of the rain. and he found out that his affinity for beautiful things didn’t stop with flowers.

* * *

 

sledge was putting together a bouquet for mrs. windham, a regular who liked her flowers in small, simple bushels.

when the bell above the door rang abruptly.

he looked up and saw a hooded figure obscured by the dark clouds outside.

“how can i help you?” he asked politely.

the man stepped forward and pulled his hood down before smiling at sledge.

sledge’s eyes widened at the man in front of him. his features were so unique, like a sculpture, defined and clean. he couldn’t look away.

“i wanted to introduce myself.”

the man rubbed a hand against his neck and looked at sledge nervously.

“i’m meri-snafu, my friends call me snafu.”

“i’m eugene…sledge. everyone calls me sledge.”

it was awkward, neither man seemed capable of actual conversation, choosing instead to stare at the other intensely.

“like a sledgehamma?” he asked with a small smirk.

sledge noticed the accent and it added to the beauty that made up the man in front of him.

“yeah, i guess you could say that. isn’t snafu slang for-”

“situation normal all fucked up. yeah.” snafu nodded and sucked in his bottom lip.

sledge watched the motion with rapt interest.

“so now we now each other’s name, mind telling me  _who_  you are?” 

“i’m your new neighbor. well technically, you’re mine. i own the tattoo place next door, but i, uh, had to go away for a while. thought i’d come say hi.” he smiled gently and sledge was entranced.

“i’ve always wanted a tattoo,” sledge said continuing the bouquets, “just never knew where to get it.”

snafu looked sledge from head to toe and back again, “i’m sure we could figure somethin’ out.”

sledge blushed and dropped the scissors in his hand to the ground.

“uhm, do, uh, you have any?”

sledge bent down to grab the scissors and felt a tingle up his spine, knowing his was being checked out.

“no, i don’t.”

sledge looked up to see snafu in the middle of the store look at the tulips.

“wait, how do you own a tattoo parlor if don’t have any tattoos?”

snafu looked at sledge with narrowed eyes and pique interest.

“how do you own a flower shop if you’re not a flower?”

sledge opened and closed his mouth, unsure how to answer the question.

“what does that even mean?”

snafu walked back to the counter.

“you don’t have to be something, to do something, sledge.”

and with thank snafu walked right out of the store.

and sledge was hooked.

* * *

for weeks, sledge built up the courage to go to shop next door.

he hadn’t been able to get snafu out of his mind, their bizarre introduction left him wanting to see and talk to the odd man again.

he was about to close up for a break and maybe, just maybe, make it to the shop instead of reaching the front glass door and turning around, when the door to his shop opened.

he groaned from the back of the shop.

“we’re about to close for lunch, so if you could make it quick that’d be gr-” he stopped when he saw who came in.

he smiled, and breathed out, “hi.”

snafu smiled back, “hi, i was wondering if you want to grab some lunch?”

sledge’s faced turned a light pink, and as he walked towards snafu, his foot caught on the watering hose and he fell flat on his face.

before he could will the earth to swallow him whole, he was being pulled up by surprisingly strong arms.

“you oughta be more careful, sledgehamma.”

sledge laughed through his embarrassment, “so, lunch?”

snafu smiled as they walked out together.

“yeah, there’s somethin’ i wanna run by you.”

* * *

they didn’t go far, just a small café around the corner.

after they ordered, snafu pulled out a cigarette and lit it, bottom lip sucked into his mouth again and sledge swallowed harshly.

“want one?”

sledge wanted to say no, but he needed the distraction.

they sat in comfortable silence as the smoke blew into the wind.

sledge looked to snafu to find the man staring at him.

he laughed, nervous. “what?”

“your skin is perfect.”

sledge tilted his head, curious and a little creeped out.

“thank you?”

snafu leaned forward, suddenly excited.

“i wanna show you something.”

sledge nodded and watched as snafu pulled a piece of paper from his pocket.

he watched snafu watch him anxiously as he unfolded it.

inside was, quite possibly, the most beautiful drawing of flowers he’d ever seen. the details were impeccable, the seems to flow as he moved the paper like they were blowing in the wind, and the colors made them seem so alive that sledge almost smelled the paper.

“t-this is incredible. you’re really talented snaf.” sledge would’ve felt awkward with the sudden nickname, but he was to entranced by the drawing.

“it’s your if you want it. i drew it for you, and you only.”

sledge was touched, beyond touched, he was flattered.

“thank you so much. i just don’t know where i’d get it,” he looked at snafu, “any ideas?” he raised his eyebrows and put on, what he hoped, was a flirtatious smile.

snafu did the lip thing again, and sledge was finding it harder and harder not reach over and kiss snafu.

“i think somewhere on your chest,” snafu licked his lips slowly, “maybe around your hip.”

snafu looked up from where he was imagining the tattoo and swallowed hard when he saw the lust swimming in sledge’s eyes.

they just stared at one another, until the waitress broke their trance and dropped their food on the table.

sledge pocketed the picture and asked a question that came out before he could think about it.

“so would you be the one giving it to me?”

snafu choked for a second and it took sledge a good thirty seconds to realize what he’d said.

“t-the tattoo, i mean. not like you’d give me anything else unless yo-i’m gonna shut up now.”

snafu laughed and sledge joined in, realizing how happy he was. and unaware of how unhappy he’d been before this.

* * *

sledge was pacing back and forth while snafu prepared the ink and supplies.

it’d been three weeks since their first lunch and they’d had lunch together everyday since then.

twenty-one days of nothing but him and snafu and sledge was at a loss.

he’d been flirting with snafu, at least he thought he was. and he could tell the snafu was interested, at least he thought he was.

and now the man, the man he can’t stop thinking about, and dreaming about, and talking about to mrs. windham. that man was about to see him practically naked.

snafu had tried for a week to convince sledge to put the tattoo on his hip. and eventually sledge conceded. 

now, he was sitting on the table, in his boxers and nothing else, waiting nervously for the literal man of his dream to come in and put his hands all over his body.

“fuck me.” he cursed just as the door opened.

snafu laughed, “you shouldn’t shout that in public you, someone might get the wrong idea.”

sledge narrowed his eyes, cursing snafu for being deceptive in his possible-but maybe just being funny-flirting-or-not-flirting.

“are you nervous?” snaf asked as his put on gloves.

“not for the reasons you think.” it was out of his mouth before he could stop it and if the look on snafu’s face was anything to go by, he’d definitely heard it.

snafu was about to speak when sledge interrupted, “let’s just get started.”

he laid down, thankful from the respite of snafu’s gaze.

“alright,” snafu said a little uneasy and breathless.

sledge never expected he’d be so turned on while getting a tattoo, but a lot of things about snafu were unexpected.

like the way he kept whispering assurances and praise and commands into sledge’s ear.

like how sledge was certain, snafu didn’t need to be touching the rest of his body as much. 

and when a hand landed on his upper thigh and made sledge jump, the stern command of “stay still” from snafu shouldn’t have made him want to moan, but it did. 

sledge was so distracted by every touch, sound, and breath that he didn’t feel any pain from the tattoo. 

this went on for hours and it was pure torture for sledge.

eventually, all too quickly or too slowly, sledge wasn’t sure, snafu proudly announced he was done.

sledge, too excited to see the final product, jumped off the bed and looked in the mirror to his left.

it wasn’t like the picture snafu had drawn, it was so much better.

he looked down to tell snafu exactly that when the look in snafu’s eyes made his stomach drop.

he’d seen lust in someone’s eyes before, he’d seen longing and love, but this? this was pure  _want_ and  _need_  and sledge want it to swallow him whole.

snafu stood up and was in sledge’s space before he could blink.

sledge’s breathe caught.

snafu looked down at the tattoo and back up to sledge, eyes intense and searching.

“it’s beautiful.”

sledge swallowed hard, “t-the tattoo?”

snafu smiled and did that lip thing that drove sledge mad.

“ _all_  of it. all of you.”

sledge pulled snafu to him roughly and kissed him like he’d wanted to since the day he burst into his shop.

snafu pulled away, “shit.”

sledge’s heart dropped, thinking he’d done something wrong.

“what?” he asked, voice small.

“i gotta patch you up.”

sledge laughed, relieved and sat down.

once the bandage was in place, snafu grabbed sledge’s thighs and pulled him close.

sledge asked cheekily, “you gonna finish what you started?”

he didn’t think it possible but snafu both gently and roughly pounced on him until they were both lying on the bed.

* * *

later that night, in sledge’s bed, moonlight trickling in over snafu’s skin, he asked the second most important question he would ever ask snafu.

“what’s your favorite flower?”

snafu smiled and kissed sledge’s forehead.

“the ones on your hip.”

“bellflowers? why?”

snafu pulled sledge’s face up toward his and look into the eyes he grown so fond of.

“they mean unwavering love.”

sledge pulled snafu to him and kiss him hard, pouring all of his love and devotion into it.

he pulled back and laughed lightly, “me too, snaf.”


End file.
